Device monitoring two traveling weft threads

ABSTRACT

A thread feeling device comprises two separate feeler members each destined to contact one of two traveling threads which are fed from separate supply locations to an operational location and form an acute angle between them on the side of the operational location. Since the monitoring occurs adjacent the operational location where the distance between the two threads is small, means are provided for separating the threads and conducting them individually to the separate feeler members. In particular, the feeling device may be used in weft stop motion equipment on a rapier loom provided with a color changer.

United States Patent [1 1 Domig nu 3,833,026 Sept; 3, 1974 4] DEVICE MONITORING Two TRAVELING WEFT THREADS [75] Inventor: Rene Domig, Kusnacht, Switzerland [73] Assignee: Aktiengellschaft Gebrueder Loept'e,

Wetzikon, Switzerland [22] Filed; Oct. 4, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 403,543

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data om. 21,1972 Switzerland i5399/72 52 U.S. c1. 139/370 [51] lntiCl ..D03d 51/34 [58] Field Of Search 139/122 W, 349, 370; 66/163 [56] References Cited v UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,237,656 3/1966 Haupt 139/370 F5 F5 F4 3,272,236 9/1966 Ancet et al. 139/370 Primary Examiner-Henry S; Jaudon Attorney, Agent, or FirmWerner W. Kleeman 57 ABSTRACT A thread feeling device comprises two separate feeler members each destined to contact one of two traveling threads which are fed from separate supply locationsto, an operational location and form an acute angle between them on the side of the operational location. Since the monitoring occurs adjacent the operational location where the distance between the two threads is small, means are provided for separating the threads and conducting them individually to the separate feeler members. In particular, the feeling device may be used in weft stop motion equipment on a rapier loom provided with .a color changer.

4 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures DEVICE MONITORING TWO TRAVELING WEFF THREADS There is also disclosed a method concurrently monitoring two traveling converging filling threads on a shuttleless weaving loom provided with a color changer and a reed, wherein the monitoring is performed at a location between color changer and reed, and adjacent member between the two threads at a second location between said first location and monitoring location, and causing each of the two threads to contact an individually associated one of the thread feeling members.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a feeler device for Now in order to implement the aforementioned objectives and others which will become more readily apparent as the description proceeds, the feeler device of the invention is generally characterized by two separate feeler members for individually contacting the traveling threads of a pair, a separation member having a longitudinal edge in a plane extending between the feeler members, and a guide member having a thread guide edge extending in a direction crossing said longitudinal edge.

The invention is also concerned with a method of concurrently monitoring two traveling converging filling threads on a shuttleless weaving loom provided with a color changer and a reed, wherein the monitoring is performed at a location between color changer and reed, and adjacent the reed, by means of athread feelconcurrently and individually monitoring two traveling threads or the like, and further pertains to the use of the inventive feeler device in a weft stop motion equipment on a rapier loom.

On rapier or gripper looms provided with color changing equipment the filling threads to be inserted into the shed formed by the warp are pulled off supply bobbins which are usually grouped on a frame outside the loom; by way of example, six or eight supply bobbins may be provided. Each filling thread is conducted by the so-called color changer to a position where it can be seized by the gripper of the loom on its path into the shed. Known stop motion devices designed for such looms comprise feeler heads in which a group of e.g. eight filling threads is conducted through eight pairs of thread guides associated with individual thread feeling or sensing positions. With this equipment, the feeler head is mounted on the loom at a place in advance of the color changer. For the production of certain textiles, e.g. such having so-called Panama texture, two filling threads are inserted into the shedconcurrently and which threads are to be monitoredindividually. In practice it is desired to allow for monitoring any pair of a multiplicity of filling threads. The selection of such a pair may be performed by'usual or conventional color changers without difficulty. The monitoring of the individual threads may be done by conventional feeler heads having a multiplicity of sensing units, or by a group of sensing units each of which is individually associated with one thread of the group of filling threads. This solution of the problem, however, requires a relatively great expenditure in view of the multiplicity of sensing units and the associated electronic circuitry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Now it is a primary object of the invention to provide for an improved thread feeler device enabling to sense concurrently. and individually two traveling threads guided from separate supply positions to a processing position and forming a small angle between them on the side of the processing position.

A further objective of the invention is the provision of a novel feeler device which may be manufactured at low expense in relation to conventional feeler devices of the aforementioned kind.

ing'head having two separate feeler members, comprising the steps of p a. increasing the lateral distance between the two threads at a first location in the path of the threads prior to said monitoring location,

b. entering a separation member between the two threads at a second location between said first and monitoring locations, and

' c. causing each of the two threads to contact an individually associated one of the thread feeling members.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will be apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description thereof which makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a front view of an inventive feeler device attached to the frame of a gripper loom;

FIG. 2 is a side view of the yarn guide member shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top 1; and

FIG. 4 is a schematic top plan view, on a reduced scale, of a section of a gripper loom provided with the feeler device'shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, at the beginning of the insertion of two filling threads into the shed.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS With reference to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, it is to be understood that the feeler device 1 comprises a feeler head 2and a support 8 which is fixed to a guide rail 17 extending in the direction of weft insertion represented by arrow b, with the help'of a holding screw 16. The feeler head 2 is provided with a casing 3 in which are. accommodated two complete feeling units (not shown). Two separate rod-shaped feeling members 4, 5 which are destined for contacting two filling threads F I, F2 (FIG. 4) and which are in operational connection with said feeling units are shown in FIG. 1. The feeling units maybe designed as piezoelectrical, triboelectrical, electrornagnetical transducers or other transducers as known in the art of monitoring traveling threads in the textile industry. Triboelectrical sensing or feeling units of this type are illustrated, among others, e.g. in US. Pat. No. 3,676,769. The feeling memplan view of the feeler device of FIG.

bers 4 and 5 extend along a line a perpendicular to the direction b of weft insertion. As shown in FIG. 3, the

feeling member 4- and also the feeling member 5- protrudes over the front surface 30 of easing 3.

A U-shaped separation member 6 is attached to casing 3 and extends essentially in a plane perpendicular to line 0. Separation member 6 has an outer or exposed longitudinal edge 7 extending in direction b and located intermediate the feeling members 4, 5. Support 8 of feeler head 2 comprises a base plate 9 having an oblong hole 10 extending in parallel to said outer or exposed longitudinal edge 7 of separation member 6, or the direction b of weft insertion, a yarn guide member 11 provided with a slanting yarn guide edge 12 which extends in a plane perpendicular to base plate 9, and further comprises two plate-shaped parallel brackets 13, 14 which also extend in planes perpendicular to base plate 9 and receive therebetween feeler head 2. Feeler head 2 is freely adjustable in a plane perpendicular to the weft insertion direction b, and may be fixed by a fixing screw 15 in its operational position relative to the frame of the loom. Support 8 is fixed ona guide rail 17 of the loom, by means of holding screw 16 extending through oblong hole 10 of base plate 9, the oblong hole 10 allowing for adjustment of feeler head 2 in horizontal direction.

Guide rail 17 extends in a direction parallel to direction b of weft insertion and has a T-shaped cross section as shown in FIG. 2, the middle portion of the T forming an upwardly directed guide flange 18 extending in a vertical plane and serving as a guide for gripper 24 (FIG. 4). Flange 18 has an upper edge 19 on which the filling threads bear and are guided when they are being inserted into the shed. Feeler head 2 should be adjusted on guide rail 17, depending upon the arrangement of the movable parts of the loom shown in FIG. 4, in a manner and with the help of screws 15, 16 such that the exposed longitudinal edge 7 of separation member 6 is located at the level of guide edge 19 or a small distance above the same and in front of the guide flange 18 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3. Distance d, see FIG. 3, between separation member 6 and vertical trailing edge 20 of guide flange 18 should be chosen as small as possible in view of the small space available for the feeler device, and may-be in the range of 4 to 10 millimeters. As may be seen from the Figures, the feeling members 4, 5 are mounted on the front surface 3a (FIG. 3) of casing 3 and protrude past or over said surface 3a, and the separation member 6 isalso mounted on casing 3 protruding past surface 3a and past the feeling members 3, 4 and has its exposed longitudinal edge 7 arranged between the feeler members 4, 5 (FIG. 1).

Referring now to FIG. 4, an inventive feeler device 1 similar to the one illustrated by FIGS. 1, 2, 3 is mounted on a gripper loom of known design of which a color changer 21 comprising six guide eyelets 22, the

reed 23 and gripper 24 are shown schematically. The feeler head 2 is located in the relatively small space between the trailing edge 20 (FIG. I) of guide rail 17 and the reed 23 through which the warp threads K are small angle a between them are concurrently inserted.

into the shed. These two threads have been conducted downwards by two of the guide eyelets 22 located at the right-hand side of color changer 21 prior to the gripper 24 beginning its inserting movement in direction b, so that they come to rest on guide edge 19 of guide flange 18 such that they can be seized by gripper 24. The remaining four filling threads are then in their upper position in which they cannot be caught by the gripper. However, the dashed lines represent these remaining threads in their positions when seized by the gripper 24.

As shown in FIG. 4, the gripper 24 has advanced in direction b so far that threads F1, F2 have been seized and are contacting yarn guide edge 12 of yarn guide member 11, as may be seen more distinctly from the side view of FIG. 2. During this operation, thethread Fl is in the extreme right position and contacts guide edge 12 first, so that thread F1 is raised higher than thread F2 which comes into contact with guide edge 12 at a later point in time. Thus, in the position of gripper 24 shown in FIG. 4, where the threads F 1, F2 are depicted at a point in time immediately prior to reaching the separation member 6, said threads are spaced apart from each other by a small distance in vertical direction. Consequently, when gripper '24 proceeds farther to the right, the left end of the longitudinal edge 7 of separation member 6 may enter the space between the threads and conduct thread F1 upwards to feeling member 4, and thread F2 downwards to feeling member 5. After contacting the feeling members, the contacting relationship of the threads is maintained until the end of the filling yarn insertion, or until premature thread rupture which causes a signal to be triggered by means of which the loom is caused to stop.

The inventive embodiment illustrated schematically in the Figures may be modified in several respects. Thus, the yarn or thread guide edge 12 of guide member 11 need not have the shape of a straight line; it may also possess the shape of a bent curve depending upon the arrangement of the eyelets 22 and feeler head 2. The edge 12 may also be positioned in a plane which is not perpendicular to the weft insertion direction b, or may form a three-dimensional curve.

It is to be noted that the electronic circuitry of a filling thread monitoring device or stop motion and the stopping device which serve for stopping the loom in the event of a filling break may be designed in a manner as known in the art and thus need not be further described, particularly since such electronic circuitry does not constitute subject matter of the actual invention.

While there is shown and described present preferred embodiments of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not limited thereto, but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced within the scope of the following claims. ACCORD- INGLY,

What is claimed is: 1. In equipment for concurrently and individually monitoring two travelling threads guided from separate,

- edge located in a plane extending between the feeler .members, and a guide member having a thread guide edge extending in a direction crossing said longitudinal edge.

2. The equipment as defined in claim 1, said feeler device further comprising a feeler head provided with a casing having a plurality of surfaces, said feeler members being mounted on one of said surfaces and pro- I truding past the same, said separation member being mounted on the casing and protruding past said onecolor changer and reed, and adjacent the reed, by I means'of a thread feeling head having two separate feeler members, comprising the steps of a. increasing the lateral distance between the two threads at a first location in the path of the threads upstream of said monitoring location,

b. entering a separation member between the two threads at a second location between said first location and monitoring location, and

c. causing each of the two threads to contact an individually associated one of the thread feeling mem- 

1. In equipment for concurrently and individually monitoring two travelling threads guided from separate supply positions to a processing position and forming a small angle between them on the side of the processing position, a feeler device comprising two separate feeler members for individually contacting said traveling threads, a separation member having a longitudinal edge located in a plane extending between the feeler members, and a guide member having a thread guide edge extending in a direction crossing said longitudinal edge.
 2. The equipment as defined in claim 1, said feeler device further comprising a feeler head provided with a casing having a plurality of surfaces, said feeler members being mounted on one of said surfaces and protruding past the same, said separation member being mounted on the casing and protruding past said one surface and past the feeler members.
 3. The equipment as defined in claim 2, further including support means for the feeler head and intended to be fixed on a frame of a textile machine, said support means including said guide member having said thread guide edge and bracket means for receiving the feeler head.
 4. A method for concurrently monitoring two traveling converging filling threads on a shuttleless weaving loom provided with a color changer and a reed, wherein monitoring is performed at a location between color changer and reed, and adjacent the reed, by means of a thread feeling head having two separate feeler members, comprising the steps of a. increasing the lateral distance between the two threads at a first location in the path of the threads upstream of said monitoring location, b. entering a separation member between the two threads at a second location between said first location and monitoring location, and c. causing each of the two threads to contact an individually associated one of the thread feeling members. 